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Charlie Strapp and Froggy Ball Flying High
Charlie Strapp and Froggy Ball Flying High (Swedish:Kalle Stropp och Grodan Boll på svindlande äventyr) is a 1991 Swedish animated feature film directed by Jan Gissberg after an original script by Thomas Funck, using Thomas Funck's already well-established characters. It follows a shorter film made by the same team in 1987, Charlie Strapp and Froggy Ball Rescuers The Chicken. This is the first time since before 1954 where a Kalle Stropp production features voice acting by others than only Thomas Funck himself, only with the exception of children that had participated in other productions as well. It was dubbed into English by Filmor and Cinélume in 1998 and was only released in Canada straight-to-video under the name Charlie and Froggy from Alliance Films. The majority of the characters' names were changed and four minutes of footage were removed. Production In the early 1980s, Charlie Strapp and Froggy Ball were frequently featured in various Swedish radio series during the summers. When listening to one of these Jan Gissberg got the idea of making an animated film about them and contacted Thomas Funck. Together they discussed the desirable appearances of the characters and settings. The project was to be produced by Gissberg's own recently started animation studio, Cinemation Industries, where also his brother Peter Gissberg worked as a background artist. Around Christmas 1987 a short film was released, but already a year prior to that, they had begun working on a script for a feature-length film. In 1987 they started the process of making it, using a budget of 13 million SEK. Reception The general Swedish reception was positive, with more or less a critical consensus claiming that it stood out as the winner among the films competing over a similar target audience, being released around the same time as Rock-A-Doodle, The Rescuers Down Under and An American Tail: Fievel Goes West. The playful style and rich ideas were complimented, and the poetic background art by Peter Gissberg was particularly praised. Dagens Nyheter claimed that although it might lack the virtuosity of Disney's films, it is to its credit that it also lacks their sentimentality and delight for violence. And further, that it is "pretty sophisticated when it allows the sportively drawn characters to appear against a backdrop of aquarelle soft nature poetry, signed by Peter Gissberg." Awards * Guldbagge Award for Best Creative Achievement (Jan Gissberg) * Honorary Award in the section for children's and youth films at the Cannes Film Festival 1992 Cast * Thomas Funck – Charlie Strapp * Thomas Funck – Froggy Ball * Thomas Funck – Sheet Metal Niklas (Tin-Can Harry) * Thomas Funck – The Fox (Phil The Fox) * Thomas Funck – The Parrot (Polly Parrot) * Thorsten Flinck – Hacke Businessman From Tonto-Turbo * Peter Dalle – Macke Businessman From Tonto-Turbo * Claes Månsson – Acke Businessman From Tonto-Turbo * Åsa Bjerkerot – The Princess Cone Green (Princess Connie Green Cone) * Eva Funck – Queen Cone (Queen Cordelia) * Stig Grybe – King Cone (King Cornelius) External links Category:Swedish children's films Category:Swedish animated films Category:1991 animated films Category:Films based on radio series